Mitchell Marsh had an extremely narrow escape as a razor-thin DRS decision ignited controversy on the final day of Australia’s Test against New Zealand.
Marsh had already been dropped on 28 – having added just one run to his overnight total – when Rachin Ravindra spilt a simple chance at point.
Marsh brought up a crucial half-century as Australia hunted an unlikely comeback victory.
Then, in the final over before lunch, Marsh had a second lucky escape as a huge LBW shout was turned down.
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Marsh shuffled out of his crease against spinner Glenn Phillips only to york himself. The ball hit his foot, but there was doubt over whether it had nicked the bat beforehand.
The on-field umpire gave it not out, with New Zealand reviewing.
Replays suggested a faint inside edge.
“I’ve got bat there. Ball has hit the bat,” the video umpire said.
“Smashed it. Absolutely smashed it,” Brendon Julian joked in commentary.
However, there were some questions over whether the audio ‘spike’ was indeed from the ball hitting the bat, or whether it was in fact from the ball or bat hitting the foot.
One explanation is that the ball hit the bat after that video frame, but before the next frame (below).
Nevertheless, it would have been close on ball-tracking, with the ball potentially going down the leg side. That may have been the key factor in the on-field umpire’s decision, rather than a judgement on whether the ball hit the bat first.
Marsh eventually fell for 80 off 102, given out lbw to Sears – and this time the Australian reviewed, only for ball tracking to show the ball was clipping leg stump (umpire’s call).
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